Money As Sacrament: Finding the Sacred in Money

Rating:
Summary: Unique approach to money
Review: A lively and interesting compilation of the stories of over 50 women and their very varied experiences with and perceptions of money. Interspersed with the author's own unique account (from salesperson in her family's grocery store as a young girl, to years in a convent, and then managing her own inheritance later in life) it is a thought-provoking read, and may well change the way you think about money.

Rating:
Summary: What a JOKE!
Review: Adele Azar-Rucquoi has touched a soft spot in the life of women.

Women seldom discuss money in the manner that the author guides its readers and/or workshop participants.

This book should be a must-read for women. The reader is challenged to comfront the role money plays in their lives. When was the last time any of us ever did that?

The author's life experiences (and there are many) make the reading light and interesting.

I would love to see her discussing Money as Sacrament with Oprah. It would be interesting to see how money fits in her life.

A great book with a unique angle for an old taboo: money.

Rating:
Summary: Worth a look but could be much more
Review: I gave this book 4 stars because the author (or her editor) delivers good writing and I did not have to force myself to keep reading. Unlike many books I get these days, I didn't find myself mentally editing whole paragraphs. And it's easy to get swept up in the stories of women and their money.

It's been said that New Age is a religion conceived in prosperity, while other religions help people accept misery and suffering. In a way this book is about creating a spiritual base for appreciating one's own wealth, in the context of a very traditional religion with official messages of "Love the poor and despise the rich."

Adele Azar-Rucquoi delivers two parallel themes. First we learn the story of her own life, a struggle to find meaning in money in an affluent home, with a father who never felt he had enough. Adele's search for spirituality, as well as a comfort level with money, takes her first into the Roman Catholic pre-Vatican church and then into a convent. She loved the religion and the life, yet she marveled that nuns and priests lived a lot better than the poor -- in fact, a lot better than a good part of the world. The real poverty came, she learned, from following the rules, giving up individual possessions and enduring banal conversations at dinner.

Leaving the convent, Adele has socked away (from an illicit teaching job) enough to give herself a good start. Despite her struggles with the meaning of wealth, she has inherited her father's gift for earning money and her brother stands by to help her invest wisely. Through therapy, she gains the strength to ends an affair with a priest that combined finance with romance, at the cost of secrecy.

After a few twists and turns, she ends up with a huge inheritance that once again forces her to confront her money philosophy. In an ending that would not be plausible in a novel, she finds herself happily married to a man who had been homeless for a year, just before they met.

Each chapter begins with an episode from Adele's life, then follows with stories of women at a similar stage in their own lives. Each story held my interest, but the cumulative effect left me wondering when we'd get to the point.

To make the book work, you have to believe that women have unique problems with money, rarely talk about money and cannot achieve a comfort level with money. In the age of Suze Orman, Leona Helmsley, and Mary Kay, those beliefs no longer ring true.

Rather than focusing on money, these stories ultimately deal with bad marriages, misguided romances and rags-to-riches determination. And as someone who works with people in career transition, and who has lived awhile, I found little that was new here. Many stories followed the sequence trauma-therapy-salvation. One woman's husband lost her fortune -- almost a cliche! Another has learned to live for each day, trusting the next phase of her life will be just fine.

So...what do we learn from all this? The exercises at the end of the book were not compelling, especially since there are no ties to the rest of the book. The author has talent and data. She needs to get clear on her message. Does she want to write a self-help book? Develop a memoir of her own life (which calls for a theme)?

Today, Prosperity Programs cloaked in "spirituality" abound on and off the Internet. Today's gurus write, unabashedly, about the path to health and wealth. In this environment, Adele's concern with money seems a little quaint and outdated, somewhat like Thomas Merton's concerns with sins that seem mild today. I think the author has a stronger message waiting, and I hope she finds her voice to share it. I found my enjoyment of this book dimmed by wondering what might have been.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful and thought-provoking reading
Review: Money As Sacrament: Finding The Sacred In Money is a book written by peace activist Adele Azar-Rucquoi especially for women. Encompassing the author's own personal experiences, the candid and informative interviews of more than 50 women are drawn from a variety of backgrounds, and exhibit a thoughtful scrutiny of just what money is and the potential it has. Thoughtful and thought-provoking reading, Money As Sacrament blends the practical and the spiritual into an even whole concerned with balancing needs of the body with needs of the soul.

Rating:
Summary: Eye-opening; thought provoking
Review: Once I started this book, I could not put it down. With each part of Adele's journey, I took a deeper look into my own life's journey and my relationship with money. Do we ever make peace with money? If so, how? These are questions I never really thought of before. But when reading this book, I felt compelled to answer them. And these answers --- and the path I took to find them --- are making a profound difference in how I am leading my life.

Rating:
Summary: Money as Sacrament-
Review: This book came to me at the perfect time in my life! I am 43 years old, and on my own for the first time in my life, following the end of a 21 year marriage in which my husband and I played the traditional roles of male/provider and female/homemaker. I was very uneasy and quite frustrated at the financial place I was in. In addition, the topic of money is not one that many of my friends felt comfortable talking with me about, especially now that we were coming from different perspectives.

Reading Adele's wonderful book was a blessing to me in 3 ways: it was full of good information and lessons, it changed the way I view money in my life, and I realized that many other women have been in similar, or worse situations, and they have found their way. It really lessened my fears and concerns, and helped me to trust that everything is as it should be. This is a much needed book on a very important topic.

Rating:
Summary: A Life Opening Book
Review: This book is a breath of fresh air for anyone struggling to have a healthy relationship with money in their life. The book is a compilation of stories of how various women have dealt with their money challenges of proverty and prosperity throughout their lives. The most helpful lesson I learned from this was thinking of money as something available to serve your life...rather than serving money itself. Azar-Rucquoi does an excellent job of showing that God wants an abundant life for all of us - and the real solution is to trust Him in whatever financial circumstances we find ourselves in. It was an enjoyable read and I applaud the author for her unique and relevant way of handling a very elusive subject.

Rating:
Summary: Money as Sacrament
Review: This book is quite unique. The author knows the power of money through her own experience as well as interviews with others. It is a fun read and an enlightening one. The author is clever, witty and insightful. I recommend this book to anyone wishing to understand the power of money in their lives.

Trish McCabe